Health care premiums may rise for 11 million workers
Published February 25, 2014
by Associated Press, published in News and Observer, February 24, 2014.
The new health care law may raise insurance premiums for 11 million small business employees and lower rates for 6 million others.
That's an estimate from a report by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, part of the Department of Health and Human Services.
The report says higher rates are partly due to the law's requirement that premiums can no longer be based on a person's age. That has sent premiums higher for younger workers, and lower for older ones.
The estimate is far from certain, partly because many small businesses renewed their policies in 2013. Renewing before the end of the year allowed them to avoid higher premiums that went into effect Jan. 1, when coverage was required to conform to the law.
Also limiting the certainty of the estimate is the fact that the report looks at three specific provisions of the Affordable Care Act. Employers' decisions will be based on more factors, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
February 25, 2014 at 10:36 am
Norm Kelly says:
The initial results of this study indicate, once again, that more people will be hurt by socialized medicine than will be helped. However, the results of this study need to be looked at carefully and with other study predictions in mind. Most other studies have shown negative impact on people and families. After the actual impact of implementation of socialized medicine has been seen, the results of the studies are different than the real-world results. In almost every case, the study predictions are far less of an impact than the actual impact. Far more people had existing health insurance plans cancelled than studies indicated. Far more people have had premiums increased than the studies had indicated. Far more people have higher deductibles than the studies would have indicated. Far fewer people are getting socialized medicine benefits than studies indicated or socialists hoped.
The projected impact of socialized medicine is far less than the actual impact. So, with information in hand, facts in hand, what can we expect from this CMS study when it's compared to the real world? The study says that 11 million small business employees MAY have higher premiums. The actual result may be double that! The study says that an estimated 6 million other people will pay lower tax rates because of socialized medicine. This is an estimate based on some factors that are not defined, and I don't have the time to dig up the details. But if this number is generated the same as other socialized medicine numbers, it's probably high by about 75-100%. Instead of 6million having a lower tax rate, it's more likely that less than 3million will pay less taxes but the rest will pay more. After all, someone has to pay for the benefits now subsidized by the central planners. Since the central planners don't have any money of their own, the only way they get money is to steal it from the producers. When more people get subsidized than pay for 'benefits', then it makes sense, and is logical, that those paying for 'benefits' must pay more in order for those getting 'subsidized' or 'free' benefits to get those benefits.
What socialists like Nancy, Harry, Obama, and K fail to realize is that NOTHING IN LIFE IS FREE. Some chosen group may be given benefits by the central planner socialists, but SOME OTHER GROUP MUST PAY FOR THOSE BENEFITS provided by the kindly socialist central planners.
Nothing coming from the central planners in regards to socialized medicine can be proven true. Everything coming out of Obama's mouth concerning socialized medicine is PROVABLY WRONG! (of course, so is most everything else coming out of his mouth, but that's for another post!)
No matter how the media, the lefties, the libs, the central planners, or K or Obama try to spin socialized medicine, it's still a bad deal for EVERYONE and it CAN'T BE FIXED.
Take free cell phones as a perfect example. Some chosen, preferred group of people, 'selected' by the central planners, qualify for a free cell phone. How is this paid for? Those of us who pay for a cell phone have our rates increased. So, millions pay more for cell service while some smaller, chosen, preferred, designated group of people get a free cell phone, provided to them by the central planners. Because the central planners decided that cell phones are a guaranteed right? And arbitrarily decided that I am willing to pay for someone else, someone I am unrelated to, someone I don't know, to have a cell phone. Because it's their right to have a phone, it becomes my responsibility to pay for it. And I am not given a choice. Just like socialized medicine. If I am a producer, I pay for my health insurance. And because someone else belongs to the group chosen by the central planners, they get free or subsidized health insurance. How do they get free health insurance? By FORCING my premiums to be artificially inflated to make up for the give-away. And by law, under socialized medicine, it's now illegal for health insurance companies to use actuarial tables to determine premiums? It's law now that younger people can be forced to pay more even though they probably won't use the benefits, while some older or less healthy person pays a lower premium even though they probably will use more of the benefits (that is, cost the company more to pay for those benefits)? Of course, it must be law under socialized medicine that costs can't be predictable. Socialism is based on cost shifting. Someone pays more so someone else, someone in the chosen group, can get 'subsidized' benefits. Using other people's money to pay for things only works so long as you don't run out of other people's money.
